San Francisco investors capitalizing DevTools, infrastructure, and API companies in 2026

San Francisco deployed $12.3B into developer tools across 520+ deals in 2025. Most capital went to AI infrastructure, observability, and security tooling. The city still dominates global DevTools funding but competition is brutal. You'll pitch against 50 other observability platforms this quarter.

Quick list

Why San Francisco for developer tools fundraising

San Francisco raised more DevTools capital in 2025 than New York, Seattle, and Austin combined. The ecosystem supports product-led growth models without early enterprise sales teams. GitHub, Stripe, and Twilio set the blueprint. You'll find investors here who understand bottoms-up adoption.

SF DevTools investors expect technical founders. Average seed round is $3-7M with strong unit economics by Series A. That's lower burn than enterprise software but higher growth expectations. Most funds here have backed 5+ infrastructure companies and know your competitive landscape cold.

The downside is every developer in the US raises here. Investors see 1,000+ DevTools pitches yearly. Your product needs real differentiation. "Better observability" or "faster CI/CD" won't close rounds without 50+ paying customers and sub-6 month payback periods.

Picking the right San Francisco developer tools investor

Local presence means access to every major tech company's engineering teams. SF DevTools investors can connect you to engineering leaders at Meta, Google, Uber, and Airbnb who become early adopters and design partners. Geography still matters when you need feedback from senior engineers at scale-ups.

Portfolio companies should include successful exits or IPOs. Check if they backed MongoDB, Datadog, GitLab, or Snowflake before going public. These funds understand multi-year paths to $100M ARR. Look for investors who held through down rounds. DevTools markets consolidate and you'll need patient capital.

Check sizes vary by stage. Seed rounds average $3-7M, Series A runs $12-25M, Series B hits $30-60M in SF. Don't approach seed funds when you need $20M for enterprise expansion. Most DevTools investors reserve 2-3x initial investment for follow-ons. Use Ellty trackable links to share your deck and see which metrics pages investors review longest.

Local network differentiates SF investors from remote funds. The right investor introduces you to Stripe's infrastructure team, Notion's DevRel leads, or Vercel's partnerships group. These relationships drive bottoms-up adoption. Ask portfolio founders if their investors actually made technical intros or just offered vague networking advice.

Follow-on capacity matters more as DevTools rounds grew larger. Series C averages $80M+ now. Funds under $300M can't lead past Series B. Check if your seed investor has $1B+ funds or strong syndication relationships with Sequoia, Accel, or Index who lead late-stage DevTools rounds. Set up an Ellty data room early for your technical docs and customer case studies.

How to find and approach San Francisco developer tools investors

Research local deals by filtering Crunchbase for "developer tools," "infrastructure," "API," and "DevOps" in San Francisco. TechCrunch covers major DevTools rounds. Check which funds led the last ten infrastructure deals in your category. Leading signals conviction. Co-investing might mean they passed initially.

Leverage local ecosystem through Y Combinator, Heavybit, and Alchemist for infrastructure-focused programs. Most SF DevTools investors scout YC demo days. Heavybit's clubhouse hosts weekly office hours with Battery, Amplify, and Boldstart partners. Join DevOps meetups at GitHub's office or CNCF events where investors actually attend.

Build relationships first by contributing to open source projects investors follow. Many SF DevTools investors track GitHub stars and contributor activity. Accel found Vercel through Next.js adoption. Benchmark tracked Docker's community before investing. Your open source traction matters more than warm intros for infrastructure deals.

Share your pitch deck via Ellty trackable links after developer conferences or community events. SF DevTools investors take 1-2 weeks to review decks if your metrics are strong. You'll see which investors focus on your growth metrics versus technical architecture slides. Include your GitHub stats and community engagement in the same link.

Attend local events like Heavybit's DevGuild events (monthly), Amplify's office hours, and Index Ventures' technical workshops. Avoid generic startup meetups. DevTools investors want to discuss your API design decisions and developer experience choices. All Things Open and Open Source Summit are where deals happen.

Connect with portfolio founders through Slack communities like DevRel Collective or Heavybit's member network. Most SF DevTools founders share honest feedback about investor value-add. They'll tell you which VCs actually help with developer marketing versus just writing checks. Ask about technical due diligence depth.

Organize due diligence in an Ellty data room with your product docs, API references, customer testimonials, and growth metrics. SF DevTools investors want to see your weekly active developers, API call volumes, and expansion revenue. Include your open source metrics and community health indicators.

Understand local pace runs faster for DevTools than enterprise software. First meeting to term sheet averages 6-10 weeks if your metrics are solid. Investors move quickly when they see product-market fit. Budget 3-4 months for fundraising including diligence. Start when you hit $500K ARR or 5,000+ developers on your platform.

San Francisco-specific considerations

SF DevTools investors expect product-led growth. Sales-led models from day one raise red flags. They want to see organic developer adoption before expensive enterprise go-to-market. Come with weekly active developers, not just registered accounts. Vanity metrics don't work with technical investors.

Developer experience matters more than feature lists. Investors evaluate your documentation quality, API design, and time-to-first-value. They'll test your onboarding flow during diligence. If your "hello world" takes more than 10 minutes, you'll hear about it. Many VCs have engineering backgrounds and will code against your API.

Pricing models need to scale with usage. Seat-based pricing works for collaboration tools but consumption-based pricing dominates infrastructure. Investors expect clear unit economics showing how revenue scales with customer growth. Your pricing page signals market understanding to SF investors who've seen hundreds of DevTools companies.

20 top developer tools investors in San Francisco

1. Accel

One of the most successful DevTools investors with track record from Slack to Vercel.

• Recent Deals: Vercel ($250M Series E, 2024), Webflow ($120M Series C, 2024), Notion ($275M Series C, 2023)
• LinkedIn: Vas Natarajan
• Sector Focus: edge computing, collaboration tools, no-code platforms, developer infrastructure
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B, Series C, growth
• Office Location: Palo Alto
• Website: accel.com

2. Andreessen Horowitz

a16z's infrastructure practice backs technical founders building foundational developer tools.

• Recent Deals: Retool ($45M Series C, 2024), Replit ($97M Series B, 2024), Temporal ($103M Series B, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Martin Casado
• Sector Focus: internal tools, workflow automation, distributed systems, infrastructure
• Stage Focus: seed, Series A, Series B, Series C
• Office Location: Menlo Park
• Website: a16z.com

3. Benchmark

Early-stage specialists who backed some of the biggest developer platform exits.

• Recent Deals: Docker (growth rounds), Confluent (Series B), Cockroach Labs ($160M Series F, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Peter Fenton
• Sector Focus: containers, event streaming, distributed databases, platform tools
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B
• Office Location: San Francisco (Presidio)
• Website: benchmark.com

4. Bessemer Venture Partners

Century-old firm with strong DevTools track record including HashiCorp and Twilio.

• Recent Deals: HashiCorp (growth rounds pre-IPO), Auth0 (pre-Okta acquisition), Fivetran ($565M Series D, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Byron Deeter
• Sector Focus: infrastructure automation, authentication, data pipelines, cloud tools
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B, Series C, growth
• Office Location: Menlo Park
• Website: bvp.com

5. Kleiner Perkins

Legendary fund that backed Figma, Slack, and multiple developer platform companies.

• Recent Deals: Figma ($200M Series D, 2023), UiPath (growth rounds), Sourcegraph ($125M Series D, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Mamoon Hamid
• Sector Focus: design tools, automation, code intelligence, developer productivity
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B, Series C, growth
• Office Location: Menlo Park
• Website: kleinerperkins.com

6. GGV Capital

Cross-border fund with strong developer infrastructure portfolio and enterprise connections.

• Recent Deals: Confluent (Series E, pre-IPO), Kong ($100M Series D, 2024), Opendoor (growth rounds)
• LinkedIn: Jeff Richards
• Sector Focus: event streaming, API management, infrastructure platforms, data tools
• Stage Focus: Series B, Series C, growth
• Office Location: Menlo Park
• Website: ggvc.com

7. Index Ventures

European fund with strong SF presence backing infrastructure and database companies.

• Recent Deals: Cockroach Labs ($278M Series F, 2024), Confluent (multiple rounds), Wiz ($300M Series D, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Mike Volpi
• Sector Focus: distributed databases, security, event streaming, cloud infrastructure
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B, Series C
• Office Location: San Francisco (Jackson Square)
• Website: indexventures.com

8. Lightspeed Venture Partners

Multi-stage fund backing developer platforms from seed to IPO.

• Recent Deals: Netlify ($105M Series D, 2024), Vanta ($110M Series B, 2024), Epic Games (growth rounds)
• LinkedIn: Ravi Mhatre
• Sector Focus: web infrastructure, security compliance, developer platforms, gaming tools
• Stage Focus: seed, Series A, Series B, Series C
• Office Location: Menlo Park
• Website: lsvp.com

9. Redpoint Ventures

Early investors in Snowflake and other data infrastructure companies.

• Recent Deals: Snowflake (Series E pre-IPO), Looker (pre-Google acquisition), Kustomer ($60M Series E, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Tomasz Tunguz
• Sector Focus: data warehousing, business intelligence, customer platforms, analytics
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B, Series C
• Office Location: Menlo Park
• Website: redpoint.com

10. Greylock Partners

Backed Dropbox, Facebook, and strong developer tools portfolio.

• Recent Deals: GitLab (growth rounds pre-IPO), Cloudera (pre-IPO), Coda ($80M Series D, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Sarah Guo
• Sector Focus: version control, data platforms, collaboration tools, productivity software
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B, Series C
• Office Location: Menlo Park
• Website: greylock.com

11. Sequoia Capital

Most successful VC firm with GitHub, MongoDB, and Stripe in portfolio.

• Recent Deals: MongoDB (growth rounds pre-IPO), Stripe (growth rounds), Navan ($150M Series G, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Pat Grady
• Sector Focus: databases, payments infrastructure, business tools, foundational platforms
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B, Series C, growth
• Office Location: Menlo Park
• Website: sequoiacap.com

12. Battery Ventures

Focus on technical infrastructure with strong API and platform investments.

• Recent Deals: Kong ($100M Series D, 2024), Cockroach Labs (co-investor), Snyk ($196M Series E, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Neeraj Agrawal
• Sector Focus: API management, security, distributed systems, infrastructure platforms
• Stage Focus: Series B, Series C, growth
• Office Location: San Francisco (Financial District)
• Website: battery.com

13. Amplify Partners

Infrastructure specialists founded by former Twitter and Google engineers.

• Recent Deals: PlanetScale ($50M Series C, 2024), Materialize ($60M Series C, 2024), Temporal (co-investor)
• LinkedIn: Lenny Pruss
• Sector Focus: databases, streaming data, workflow automation, data infrastructure
• Stage Focus: seed, Series A, Series B
• Office Location: San Francisco (Jackson Square)
• Website: amplifypartners.com

14. Cowboy Ventures

Seed-stage fund with successful product analytics and developer data investments.

• Recent Deals: Amplitude (growth rounds pre-IPO), LendingHome (pre-acquisition), Canva (early investor)
• LinkedIn: Aileen Lee
• Sector Focus: product analytics, developer data, design tools, infrastructure
• Stage Focus: seed, Series A
• Office Location: Menlo Park
• Website: cowboy.vc

15. Boldstart Ventures

Day-zero enterprise infrastructure fund backing technical founders from inception.

• Recent Deals: Snyk (Series A, 2019), BigID (co-investor), Kenna Security (pre-Cisco acquisition)
• LinkedIn: Ed Sim
• Sector Focus: developer security, data security, infrastructure security, DevSecOps
• Stage Focus: pre-seed, seed, Series A
• Office Location: San Francisco (with NYC headquarters)
• Website: boldstart.vc

16. Work-Bench

Enterprise infrastructure specialists with strong Fortune 500 connections.

• Recent Deals: BigID ($70M Series D, 2024), Drata ($200M Series C, 2024), Split (pre-acquisition)
• LinkedIn: Jonathan Lehr
• Sector Focus: data security, compliance automation, feature management, infrastructure
• Stage Focus: Series A, Series B
• Office Location: San Francisco (with NYC headquarters)
• Website: work-bench.com

17. Heavybit

Developer-focused accelerator and fund with strong technical community.

• Recent Deals: LaunchDarkly ($54M Series C, 2024), Netlify (co-investor), CircleCI ($100M Series E, 2024)
• LinkedIn: James Lindenbaum
• Sector Focus: feature management, CI/CD, developer infrastructure, DevOps tools
• Stage Focus: seed, Series A
• Office Location: San Francisco (SoMa)
• Website: heavybit.com

18. Uncorrelated Ventures

Quantitative fund backing technical founders with strong product instincts.

• Recent Deals: Railway ($20M Series A, 2024), Dagger ($20M Series A, 2024), Inngest ($6M seed, 2024)
• LinkedIn: Salil Deshpande
• Sector Focus: infrastructure platforms, build systems, serverless, developer experience
• Stage Focus: seed, Series A
• Office Location: San Francisco (Marina)
• Website: uncorrelated.com

19. Homebrew

Seed-stage fund with strong platform and API company track record.

• Recent Deals: Plaid (Series A, 2016), Chime (Series A, 2015), Dropbox Sign (pre-acquisition)
• LinkedIn: Hunter Walk
• Sector Focus: financial APIs, developer platforms, infrastructure tools, data platforms
• Stage Focus: seed, Series A
• Office Location: San Francisco (Mission)
• Website: homebrew.co

20. Initialized Capital

Garry Tan's fund backing developers building tools for other developers.

• Recent Deals: Coinbase (Series A, 2013), Instacart (Series A, 2013), Flexport (early rounds)
• LinkedIn: Garry Tan
• Sector Focus: developer platforms, APIs, infrastructure, crypto tools
• Stage Focus: seed, Series A
• Office Location: San Francisco (SoMa)
• Website: initialized.com

Start tracking your San Francisco developer tools investor outreach

These 20 investors closed 300+ DevTools deals in San Francisco in 2025-2026. Before you start reaching out to SF funds, set up proper tracking for your metrics and technical materials.

Upload your deck to Ellty and create a unique link for each investor. You'll see exactly which slides they review and how long they spend on your growth metrics or technical architecture. San Francisco DevTools investors typically focus on slides showing weekly active developers, API call volumes, and expansion revenue rather than total addressable market calculations.

When SF investors ask for additional materials during diligence, share an Ellty data room instead of Dropbox folders. Your API documentation, customer case studies, technical roadmap, and metrics dashboard in one secure place with view analytics. You'll know if their technical partner actually reviewed your architecture docs or just skimmed your executive summary.

Common questions

Do I need to be in San Francisco to raise from SF DevTools investors?

Not necessarily, but it helps for product feedback and customer development. Most SF DevTools investors fund companies nationwide if metrics are strong. Remote works until Series B when you'll need Bay Area sales presence for enterprise deals. Open source traction matters more than location.

How does SF compare to NYC or Seattle for DevTools fundraising?

SF has more capital and higher valuations for product-led growth companies. NYC funds prefer sales-assisted models with shorter payback periods. Seattle has strong infrastructure expertise through AWS and Microsoft connections. For pure developer tools, SF remains the best market for raising.

What metrics do SF DevTools investors want to see at seed?

5,000+ developers using your tool monthly, 500+ paying customers, or $50K+ MRR. They want to see organic growth without paid acquisition. GitHub stars, npm downloads, or Docker pulls matter if you're open source. Net dollar retention above 110% signals expansion revenue working.

Should I raise from generalist VCs or DevTools specialists?

Specialists add more value early through technical feedback and developer community intros. Generalists have larger funds for follow-ons and can lead through IPO. Best approach is specialist at seed, generalist at Series B. Don't optimize for brand alone.

Do SF investors expect open source or commercial-first?

Open source helps with adoption but investors want a clear monetization path. Open core works well. Fully open source companies struggle to raise unless community is massive. Commercial-first with freemium models work if time-to-value is under 30 minutes. Be honest about your strategy.

What's the typical Series A valuation for DevTools in SF?

$40-80M post-money for companies with $2-4M ARR and strong growth. Higher if you have bottoms-up adoption at Fortune 500 companies. Lower if you're sales-led or burning heavily. Product-led growth companies with 3x year-over-year growth command premiums.

How important is developer community before fundraising?

Very important for infrastructure tools. Investors check GitHub activity, Stack Overflow mentions, and Twitter developer sentiment. Strong community signals product-market fit and reduces customer acquisition cost. If you're commercial-first without community, you'll need revenue traction instead.